Beauty Blog

Tag: clarins

DiorskinForever Compact in the color 010: This is a great on the go powder, mattifying and with good coverage. I like it a lot better than the liquid Forever foundation. Sadly the lightest color is too dark for me and also a bit pinkish. I think the color is comparable to a MAC NW20. So instead of repurchasing the Forever I went for MAC’s Studio Fix powder instead. I think the quality of both is comparable, the Studio Fix is maybe more drying.

Then I’ve got an empty Diaderminetwo phase eye makeup remover: these removers are falling out of favor it seems. Nowadays you get a lot more all over removers, which makes sense because we don’t just have eye makeup to remove. But I do like having these around, for swatch removal and to get at waterproof liners and mascara. Anyway, this remover was very oily which helped in getting waterproof makeup off quickly. But the packaging was a terror. I always spilled the product, even though I made sure to put the pad under the bottle properly. It was very annoying.

EbelinWattepads: my favorite cotton pads.

La JuiceMultifruit sheet mask: I already used the other two in december. I really liked those masks; they are easy to use and hydrate well and they smell nice without smelling like there is a ton of perfume in them.

J. Douglas & SöhneShea & Vitamin Shower Gel: very nice shower gel, smells like shea butter. There are vitamins listed in the ingredients but I’m not sure how much difference they make in a product that is washed off instantly.

Batistetropical dry shampoo: smells like coconut and a bit of pineapple. Very nice. Already repurchased.

RexonaMaximum Protection: the evil aluminum. But what can I say? It works.

Next I’ve got Eos lipbalm in strawberry scent. Ladies & Gents, I really don’t understand the hype. I mean the balm itself was of good, waxy quality. But the dome shape??? It’s more of a cat toy than a beauty product imho. Also it exposes too much of the product at once to air, so it goes bad very quickly. This never happens with normal chapstick. Get off my lawn and take your dome lip balm with you.

Lancaster Aquamilk Comforting Lip Balm: best. lip balm. ever. Seriously, this is soo good. I ran out in the middle of january and already miss it so badly, because now my lips are cracking. This has also lasted me very long, since you need only so little of the balm. It’s also the best lip primer, no additional product needed. Have not repurchased yet, because I’ve got some other stuff to use up first but I want to repurchase.

And last but certainly not least, my beloved Clarins liquid blush in the color Vitamin Pink: yes I used up two blushes in the span of three months. I feel very accomplished. It was just about time, too, because the pink one did start smelling funky. Liquids simply don’t last forever, but those did last a couple years so it’s all good. This were the best liquid blushes ever and I don’t understand why Clarins never made new colors. These blushes were LE. I also have the third one, Brown Fizz, but I barely used that one, the color is too dark for me.

It’ll probably be a while until you see more empty blushes on this blog, but I’m trying my hardest. 😉

Alright I know I said last, but I just found one more item:

This is the alverdeclear Waschcreme Heilerde. This is a nice cream cleanser, it doesn’t really foam but I like that (cleansers that foam always iritate my skin). This is gentle and it gets the job done. I only used it on makeup free skin, though. This was my morning cleanser and I used it on evenings sometimes when I wore no makeup. This has a new design now, but I checked and the ingredients are still the same. I might even repurchase at some point in the future but now I have enough other cleansers.

Well, that was quite the list for a single month, making a good start. I’ve already got two empties for february as well, so we’ll see how many there are at the end of the month.

Look, it didn’t take me another three months to do another used up post! Yay. Honestly I don’t even know if anyone reads these but I love doing these kinds of posts and I also love reading these kinds of posts on other people’s blogs, because it means putting your money where your mouth is, kinda? It’s one thing to review products you used for a bit, but which ones do you actually use up?

I’ve managed to use up some makeup again, which is why I’m giddy. But on to that later.

Firstly I don’t wanna bore you, but this is still my fav hand lotion. Already repurchased and I think I’ll stop showing it here to not spam you unless something changed in which case I’ll show it again (like with their Q10 handcream, my previous fav until they changed the formula). Shown in the pic is Balea‘s Handcreme Buttermilk & Lemon which smells fantastic.

More Balea: the infamous unicorn showergel from last year: Regenbogendusche. It had a sweet milky smell and I liked it. This was LE so I can’t repurchase it, but I did also buy the reissue they had on April 1st (same showergel, different picture). I couldn’t bring myself to use that one right after this one, so it’ll be a while until you see it in the empties. I was thinking about keeping the empty packaging, seeing as this was a stupidly hyped item and people actually paid sums for it on ebay (totally crazy since the original cost only between 55 cents and 80 cents) but I hate keeping litter so I threw it out anyway.

Also used up the Reinigungsöl/cleansing oil. This is still my favorite cleanser. It was originally discontinued but by the time I used this one here up and would have had to look around for something else, it was back on the shelves. So I bought a couple back ups, just to be safe. Like with the handcream I won’t show every single bottle I use up here to not bore you. Will update if something changes.

Another handcream, this time by Ahava, the Deadsea Water Mineral Hand Cream. At first I liked it because when you put it on it feels so good. But then and it took me a while to notice but it only ever happened when I used this particular handcream – my skin got really dry about 15 minutes later. I felt like parchment. Slathering on more didn’t make it any better. So I used it up (I’m very stubborn and also at first I wasn’t sure if it was the cream), but would never repurchase it.

And then I used up the ClarinsInstant Light Blush/Eclat Minute Blush in the color Coral Tonic. Woot, woot! I mean how often do you use up color cosmetics and a cheek color, at that? Sure, you could say this was a pretty small amount of product containing only 7ml of blush, but then personally I prefer if a blush is sized so that I can reasonably use it up before it goes bad. Still, looking through my old posts, I swatched it here, and that post is from 2013 so it took me a while to use it up. Haha. It didn’t go bad, always smelled the same, just right at the end when there was barely anything left it thickened up and dried and that was it. I don’t care much about expiry dates since those exist mostly so that you can’t sue the company and it doesn’t mean the stuff goes toxic after that date. My rule is, if the smell stays the same and the texture doesn’t change either it is good to use. So Clarins had produced a real quality item here, it stayed fresh until the end and looked to amazing, plus was easy to use. I stand by my orignal assessment, if Clarins had come out with more of these I would have purchased them all but so far, it was only that one LE that had these blushes. Boo. Admittedly, when they went on sale I snagged up back ups and that might have helped with me using it up too. These were the only color items I ever bought backups for. Nowadays I probably wouldn’t do it as I own so much more makeup now. But then, these were really stellar…

CLARINS BRING THEM BACK! Why do they always discontinue the best items (like with that famous nail polish)?

Okay, enough with the Clarins love. I’ve used up yet another Batiste dry shampoo on my quest to try all the scents (or at least most). This is Blush, and it has left the least impression on me, smell-wise. This is actually good, because it means it’s neutral enough to use it with any perfume. Honestly I can’t even tell you what it smells like anymore even though I used it up only last week. Repurchase highly possible, once I’m done with the other scents.

And last item used up, the MACCC Cream in the color Illuminate. This is my favorite primer, it comes with SPF 30, meaning I can skip on additional sun protection. The primer is very silicony, giving the usual benefits of that (filling out pores, little wrinkles, helping foundation to stay on) but of course not everyone likes that sort of finish. The color Illuminate is light lavender, making your face glow (will probably work best on light skin tones, there are other colors for darker tones). I use it to color correct my very yellow undertone, giving a neutral result. I love it and have already repurchased it.

All in all, I’m happy I used up some stuff, but it didn’t help in making my pile smaller that much, since I have back ups/repurchased most of these. 🙂 The pink Clarins blush is also almost used up so I’m expecting to see it here soon, other than that I don’t know how it’ll go on. I’m actually trying to use up more of my color cosmetics but no matter how often I use my Chanel lipsticks, they won’t get any smaller???

This concludes my last trash post of the year, see you in january hopefully for the next one.

September is almost over, but I don’t wanna lump all my empties together – the post would get too long, so here is what I used up last month:

Firstly, the Jil SanderSimply body lotion. I love the perfume; the body lotion lacks the opening and pretty much goes straight to the base – musk, patchouli, something woody, leather. It’s delicious! When I started using this, for days I’d walk past my bathroom and go, what is this amazing smell? And finally I’d sniff at my bathrobe and realize the body body lotion had rubbed off. XD Apart from smelling great on its own, it also supports the perfume and makes it more intense. It doesn’t do much else though, don’t expect much moisture or anything.

Secondly I used up ClarinsMission Perfection Serum. This is supposed to help with age spots and such. The liquid comes out orange, but applies colorless, so it doesn’t do any color correction. There’s also small shimmer particles in it. I don’t have the list of ingredients for it, but I don’t think this did much for my skin. Would not buy a full size.

Ingredients for body lotion. Click picture to make it bigger.

SisleySelf Tanning Hydrating Facial Skin Care. Well, that’s a mouthful. This was a pretty generous sample of a self tanner that lasted almost for a full month. I used this after my serum; there was no need for additional moisturizer. Years ago I tried out some self tanning products, found them all terrible and finally came to terms with my natural skin color. I gotta say, this Sisley product if really much better than what I had before. It did not get patchy (except on those days where I went sloppy and applied too much) and the tanner smell is much less annoying than I thought it would be.

I started out as NC15 and went up to NC20 with this. But I had to apply it two nights in a row, then skip a night, rinse and repeat. If I used it every night I’d get too orange. So in theory you could get even darker. After a while I stopped using it all over and applied it like I would a liquid bronzer – top of the cheek bones, bridge of the nose etc. This way I could blend the edges nicely and look great even when I was completely makeup-free.

The product needs to be applied every other day to keep the color. After three nights without, the color was gone.

Ingredients.

pro: really good | contra: full product is very expensive

Might buy a full size one day should I ever decide I need a self tan.

And that closes my empties for the month of August. I’ve already used up quite a few products in September so I can tell you there’s going to be a couple of Biotherm items next. 🙂

Ah, sorry for the little hiatus there. My schedule keeps being upset and I can’t create when I don’t have a few hours of spare time in one go. 😦 Anyway, here is what I used up the last month, quite a few items:

Batiste Dry Shampoo light&blonde: this dry shampoo is colored. It comes out a muddy yellow. it totally works for my hair, but I’m not sure if it would work for a platinum blonde. You might end up with yellow patches! It does leave the scalp yellow, which is a bit annoying. The scent is vanilla, which is okay, but I’d highly prefer for hair products in general to be a lot less scented. They often compete with my perfume. But in general this is a good dry shampoo. It also creates volume, something I despereately need. The finish is duller than other dry shampoos might leave you, but I don’t care. Already repurchased.

Ingredients for Batiste Dry Shampoo.

ClarinsDaily Energizer Cleansing Gel: This is a case of not used up. I finally admitted to myself that foaming cleansers are really irritating for my skin. This particular product has a really nice smell, just like the matching cream, which I used up and reviewed before. But ultimately it’s not worth it. If you are the sort of person to use foaming cleaners you can find similar ones for less money.

This is my second empty MACMineralize Compact Foundation. It works really well for me. I have not repurchased yet, but I might. I just wish they offered a lighter color than NC15. I think I am really NC13 now.

Another handcream. I may be on a mission to try all the Balea ones… This is the Totes Meer handcream (dead sea salt). The texture is light and absorbs easily. The scent is light and unoffensive, a bit salty. Despite the light texture, it really helped keeping my skin moisturized. I have now purchased other hand creams that need to be used up, but I would totally repurchase this one. I just wish it came with SPF!

Ingredients. Click to see full size.

Absolute DouglasEndless lashes mini mascara: I will spare you the review because not only does this mascara not exist anymore, the whole brand has been discontinued at the end of 2015. I just took a pic of my fingers with the brush, because the brush is really super big. I kept on stabbing myself in the eye, or applying mascara to my brows on accident. 😐

MAC brow pencil Lingering: the quality is absolutely top notch. The color is brown, something that works for many people. But I am naturally very ashy and found this a tad too red to repurchase this particular color.

La Roche PosayRosaliac UV Legere: This is a cream with niacinamide (also written as nicotinamide, this is a derivate of vitamin B3). It has SPF 15, so first I used it as a day cream. It is tinted green, but too little to actually have effect, it’s just a gimmick. Despite being the legere version (there’s a riche one also) I found this cream very thick. And sadly, it left me looking incredibly greasy. It’s not that I was greasy (aka full of my own sebum) but this cream is just so shiny in not a god way. It was impossible to apply makeup on top. So I started using this as a night cream. And you know, in the long term it really worked. Short term I’d often get red in the face when I applied it. But long term, my acne and rosacea symptoms got so much less. My skin is calmer and better overall. But, because I really don’t need a greasy night cream with SPF I will not repurchase. Instead I am looking for creams with similar ingredients. Sadly I had not taken a pic of them before I threw the packaging away, so I can’t show them to you. Sorry. Basically I am looking for something with niacinamide, no alcohol, no perfume.

Then I used up a sample of YSLParis EdT. This is originally from the 80s and you can tell. I has a lot of notes, but I am overwhelmed by the powdery rose. Very rosey, very powdery. It was nice to test, but I’m not going to miss it.

Last item! I also used up the Kikokiss balm. This is very pigmented, comparable to a sheer lipstick. The balm had a lot of slick, it glides on very quickly. It made my lips feel good and look lovely. I am not sure if it had any long term benefits. It does come with SPF 15, though, which is good. I would recommend it for those who don’t want to put on lipstick and are looking for a colored balm instead. It’s too slick and too pigmented to use underneath lipstick even if you wiped most of it off again.

Wow, this was a mega post. In case anyone besides me finished reading all that, you deserve a cookie. 🙂

(note: I’m taking a few days off; it’s too hot to blog. love you guys)

The trend

You probably saw it already: the new trend is called ‘strobing’. Unsurprisingly, it basically means ‘a whole lot of highlighting’. I think it’s the perfect trend for summer, for a lady doesn’t sweat, she glows! 😉

Nikkie has a great tutorial for it. I love her; she’s so funny.

Basically, you’ve got two options to go about it: either you start with a mostly matte base, powder down and then use powder highlighter, or you go for the full glow with a luminous base and cream or liquid highlighters.

the products

Here are some base products that I use for a subtle glow:

DiorBB Creme, not overly shiny, but certainly not matte and a perfect base for me. Attention fellow Austrians: the lightest color 01 is being phased out! I stocked up on it. 😦 The other colors are staying.

In the middle of the pic I put what should have chronologically come first: two primers. Both are only subtle illuminating primers, not full on glow. First there’s the MACCC Cream in Illuminate. Illuminate is a light purple color and the only MAC CC cream light enough for me. It is less shimmery than my previous primer from MAC (Fortified Skin Enhancer), but it has a bit of shimmer. Second primer is ClarinsBeauty Flash Balm. This is what I use if I want a perfect finish. Somehow Beauty Flash Balm makes all layers go together in perfection. It has a bit of peachy shimmer, but also not too visible. If you want more shimmer in the primer, there are many options out there, from Clarins to pretty much every brand. Personally I think a primer is necessary for a look with a strong highlight, because the primer makes the skin more even. I never had a problem with highlighters enhancing my pores if I wore a good primer.

And last I packed a body glow product onto the pic: Soap & GloryGlow Lotion. I think if we’re going overboard with the face glow we might as well have a matching body. Any shimmery body product will do.

And now on to the actual highlighters:

For a more champagney glow I’ve got BenefitWatt’s up, an easy to use cream highlighter. For a pink highlight, the liquid high beam, also by Benefit. For a light golden glow I have my alverdeSchimmerfluid Meeresglanz. This was sadly a limited item, but there are many good options at the drugstore these days.

And for powder highlighter I’ve got the MACMineralize Skinfinish in Lightscapade. Not pictured, but Kiko has released some great new powder highlighters: beam of light (review upcoming).

And if you don’t have a powder highlighter, there’s no need to rush out and buy one (unless you want to) because in reality a light shimmery eyeshadow will the do the trick just as well. Here I’ve got my Extra Dimension Shadow in A Natural Flirt, simply because it was on top of the makeup drawer. You only need to make sure it is not too shimmery and blends well. 🙂

the application

With liquid highlighters (and the creamy stick of Watt’s up) I still use my fingers for application; I simply use more than I would use for a subtle look. The biggest change for me was in appliction of powder products: I used apply them with a fan brush, but it never quite looked like I wanted. Not enough, not well blended etc. For strobing I started to use a blush brush instead and finally it looks the way I want it to look! I’ll stick with the blush brush. (actually I’m using the Bobbi Brown Face Blender. That thing blends everything like a charm.) For smaller parts (inner corner, top of lip etc) I’ll use either fingers or a small eye blending brush.

So that’s it, have fun with your highlight and ditch the contour. 😀 Let’s all be faeries, wheee!

On top of the picture, that’s not a cat, it’s a cap knit by my mom; I got it for x-mas. Because chilly air is no good, so I almost always wear a knit hat. 🙂

On the far right I put a tube of hand cream. Regular reads will know I am a hand cream fiend and in winter I need more protection than usual. Next to it, my new Clarins lip oil. Any lip balm might have worked for this compilation, but it’s new and really good so it made the cut.

On to the makeup: these are what I wore most often when it was chilly and snowy. Underneath the lip oil, The YSL Palette City Drive Arty. The colors are pretty chilly if you ask me. I don’t use it often, but lately I was in the mood for chilly. The tube next to it is another YSL, the Dare to Glow Liquid Highlighter in Naughty Pink. It’s such a pity these were limited edition, it’s the best liquid highlighter I know.

On top there is the MAC powder blush in Easy Manner, sadly another LE item. It was part of a past Holiday Collection. I loved it in the store, took it home and at home… I could barely see it. I was disappointed and chucked it in the back of the makeup drawer. Much later I pulled it out again and it was magic! It gives a wonderful peachy pink flush, pinker than you’d expect from the pan. This story shows how important it is to have a good blush brush. In this case, one that isn’t too loose. Anyway, I think this is a perfect winter blush.

Next is GuerlainTerracotta Blush Sun Shimmer Highlighter in Sunny Pink. It’s a coral blush with lots of golden shimmer. I’m pretty sure Guerlain released this in the summer, but the time I need this most is winter. This is my patented recipe for gloomy days when the sun refuses to even rise and you’re stuck in cold and dark. Putting this on, instant light!

Next to it is a lip gloss by Isadora, the Express Star Gloss in Reflecting Peach. I’m not much of a gloss wearer, but in winter when it’s freezing and snowy I suddenly feel the need for sparkles, that’s when I reach for this one (or the one from Rouge Bunny Rouge, which goes very well with the Terracotta Blush).

Last item here is Max FactorExcess Shimmer in Crystal. I use it as base underneath the YSL palette, or on its own for a snow queen look.

Basically, in winter I am a fan of two things: lots and lots of shimmer and sparkles, and pastels. That’s why I am glad that Spring Collections come out in January. By the time real spring rolls around, I’m already in the mood for stronger colors. I guess what I showed you up there is the shimmer edition. Please note I’m not wearing all of this at the same time, that’d look a little weird. I was mostly reaching for these when there was snow on the ground. Except for the MAC blush – I wear it whenever, all through the season.

This time I added no nail polish since I’d already shown you my color picks in a previous post. As for perfume, I forgot to add one. Something cozy like Eau de Shalimar maybe, although I also wore ‘cold’ perfumes a lot, like Eau de Gaga or Chanel N°5 Eau Premiere.

What are your picks for chilly weather? Dark and moody, or shimmery and light?

The newest trend in cosmetics is tinted lip oils. Clarins and YSL offer them in their spring collections and I decided I needed at least one:

My choice fell to the ClarinsInstant Light Lip Comfort Oil | Eclat Minute Huile Comfort Levres in 01 Honey. Clarins offers two colors: honey and raspberry; they have matching scents. Honey will be permanent, raspberry is LE! But I decided that I have enough balms and lipsticks in raspberry hues and the smell of honey was so lovely.

Packagingwise, the lip oils are almost identical to the Instant Light blushes which were a limited edition a few springs ago. Only the cap is slightly different, but the applicator is the same.

It’s an unusually big applicator for lips, but it worked for me. I put it to the middle of my lower lip to deposit product and then spread around by pressing my lips together. While it’s called an oil, it is much closer to lip gloss. In fact you use it exactly like lip gloss, it can be applied on the naked lips or on top of lipstick.

Swatch. The yellow oil obviously doesn’t have much color and if it left a light yellow stain you wouldn’t notice it. On the lips it looks like a clear gloss. It also wears like a gloss. Lasting power is about two to three hours unless you eat or drink. But when the gloss has worn off, the lips are still being nourished. I guess the oils have sunk into the skin. To keep my lips soft I need to reapply maybe twice a day, if even.

I wore it for two days and it has healed my badly cracked lips in that time. It is cold here and I was ill and my lips were bleeding. But now they’re all all soft and I haven’t even worn it today. The only bad thing about this lip oil is that it hasn’t been released sooner! Where have you been all my life!!! Massive recommendation. Much better than any balm I own.

First off, ClarinsUV Plus HP with SPF 40: used this on my face during ‘summer’. This has a lightweight texture, it sinks in immediately and doesn’t leave a white cast either (even if it first looks like it will, but it just needs to be blended in). It’s not mattifying, it leaves a little dewy shine (possibly whats left over from the white cast). I think it protected well enough. My biggest problem, and I mean with ALL sunscreens, is that they always leave me with clogged pores. I experiemented around, and I’m pretty sure it’s the sunscreens (when it’s not MAC foundations). So this product is pretty good, also to wear under foundation, but not mattifying and I’m still on the look for sun protection that doesn’t clog pores. Before I forget this was only a 3 ml sample, but I needed so little for the whole face that it last a long time.

To battle the clogged pores and every other skin problem: LancomeAdvanced Genifique: been wanting to try this for a while, but I waited until I had several samples to have a nice long testing period. Now I’ve used up my last sample and I’m already missing it. Advanced Genifique claims to be a youth activating concentrate. It doesn’t really claim much else. What does it do on my skin? The first couple days it reminded me a lot of Biotherm’s Blue Therapy Serum. It also felt like it flushed out some blemishes, meaning after about a week I had more pimples. Those healed up in record time. After that, Advanced Genifique went to town on my pores, blackheads vanished or got significantly smaller. This puts it ahead of Blue Therapy in my books, because that one never managed to get my pores smaller. Does Advanced Genifique also reduce wrinkles? Small ones, I guess.

Is Advanced Genifique really as good as the hype says? I say yes, and I’m already saving up for a full size.

Also used up: a 300 ml bottle of Balea hand cream Sheabutter Arganöl: I like that you can unscrew the pump to get at the very last bit of the cream. I’m neurotic about hand washing so I use a lot of hand cream. Big bottles are perfect for me. Sadly, despite being described as rich, this one isn’t rich at all. It’s a very thin cream, not like the name would make you believe, since both shea butter and argan oil are very rich ingredients. It was okay for summer, but now I need something better.

Also used up two perfume samples:

MoschinoChic Petals: This is a fresh fruity floral. And that’s about all I can say. It’s not overly offensive, but not very interesting either. Longevity is medium to strong, imho.

ChanelChance Eau Fraiche: Perfect for summer, it has a very citrusy opening, although I can’t quite pin down which citrus. That phase is very short and then I am left with a clean chypre*, possibly the regular Chance smell (I don’t know Chance, sorry). Longevity is extremely short, so I had to reapply during the day. To be honest I also used it as a room spray. I think it’s a wonderful room spray. I wouldn’t buy a full size of this for myself (a scented candle would be another story), but I’ve bought a full size for my mum. My mum likes inoffensive clean chypre.

I have given the DiadermineLift+ Color Correction CC Cream to my older sister. She has been using it ever since and so I thought I’d make a post about her thoughts on it.

Like I wrote before, this cream claims to be a day cream and a makeup base, putting it into the primer category of CC Creams. It also claims to help with pigmentation and to be “ultra” tightening.

It comes out almost colorless, unlike some other CC creams, which tend to have a visible color tint.

Spread out you can barely see it, but it has a slight pink shimmer. Since both shimmer and pigmentation are so low, it would work with all skin tones.

What my sister says:

She likes to apply it in the morning, then she doesn’t need any other moisturizer. She likes the way it looks on skin, not noticable but it does give a glow. Her favorite part is that she says her face tightens with this on, like there is less sagging. (I don’t know where my sis thinks there is sagging on her face, but it’s what she said.)

My sister also uses ClarinsBeauty Flash Balm and she says those two are pretty similar.

And last, she also complains that there is no SPF in it. She doesn’t want to put yet another layer on. I very much agree about the SPF. If you claim to reduce pigmentation you can put SPF in your cream.

My first empty bottle in June was the BC Bonacure Oil MiracleVolume Amplifier. Like, it ran out on June, 1st, just a day too late for my previous empties post. 😐 I’m still not sure what this thing actually is, it comes out as a golden conditioner-like cream, but it’s a leave in product. It contains argan oil and no silicones. It was very useful, since it was sort of conditioning the hair and giving a little volume as well and being a leave in product, it’s faster than something you have to wash out. I liked it and might buy a full size.

DiadermineLift+ Hautverschönderndes Multi-Zonen Öl: This was a body oil in a spray bottle. At first I was super into it, it leaves the skin very soft. After a while it started to annoy me – the spray isn’t very directional and the oil ends up all over the place, including eyes and airways. 😦 Even when I put my hand right in front of the bottle, some of the oil ended up somewhere else. My mum also claims that the smell is terrible. Personally, I found the scent okay. But I wouldn’t buy another full size.

ClarinsCreme Eclat du Jour/Daily Energizer Cream: I also have the matching facewash. The Daily Energizer line has a very lovely scent. This particular cream is very rich, I would only recommend it for dry skin. It moisturizes well, but I did not notice anything else. It’s a completely regular face cream, apart from the nice smell you can get something similar for less money.

Figs & RougeMulti-Purpose Lip Balm Coco Rose: This was good. This was very good. I used it every day and it kept my lips soft and whole. The balm comes out a soft glossy pink with sparkle. This was pretty much the reason I did not use any lip gloss the last year. I’d just use this instead. I 100% recommend this, I only wish it had some sort of applicator or a better opening, because it comes out of the tube in a wide opening and I had to use my finger to apply.

Judith WilliamsPhytomineral Handcream: This a very rich hand cream with a thick texture in a bottle with a very small opening. Getting anything out is quite the muscle training. It was very good for my skin though. Operating touch screens is not possible after application, it needs a while to sink in.

Another Clarins, this time the Ultra Matte Rebalacing Lotion for oily skin: This is a lightweight mattifying cream. Despite being for oily skin, it did not feel drying on my cheeks. It’s the perfect summer face cream. It does mattify the skin, but if I used nothing else my nose would get shiny halfway through the day. There is also a version for combination skin, but since the version for oily skin has worked so well for me, I’d stick with it.

Daylong ultrasunscreen with SPF 25: I had several mini sizes and samples of this one. It goes on very lightweight and sinks into the skin fast. There is no greasy feeling afterwards. I could detect no scent, but the dog could (and kept on trying to lick it off). It comes out of the bottle yellow and while it hasn’t happened to me, it’s possible for this to stain clothes. Overall, it is a good product, but SPF 25 is too low for me. I also had one sample of the SPF 50 version for kids. That one has physical filters only (as kids sun screen always should) meaning that unlike the SPF 25, the 50 left a visible white cast on the skin. The texture of the SPF 50 was also harder to work in.

All in all, I would buy neither the SPF 25 nor the kids one, but I might check out their SPF 30 sunscreens sometime.

These were my June empties, if you made it down here, you get a virtual cupcake. 🙂

I’ve been procrastinating on this post so hard, oh my. When I ran out of my Catrice Foundation I had to find a new one, because that one had been discontinued. I thought, well how hard can it be? Very, very hard, it turns out.

For preparation I rewatched Lisa Eldridge’s Foundation Course, which is so helpful. And I decided to ask for samples, like she suggests. Asking for samples in Douglas stores gets you gentle “no”s at best and bewildered stares at worst. Then I went over to Marionnaud and was very pleasantly surprised. I did not even have to ask for a sample. When we decided which foundation might be best for me, the SA walked away and I was like “what” but then she came back with a little pot and filled it with foundation, while apologizing it was probably only going to be enough for two uses, but there wasn’t enough left. Usually they give you samples for three uses at least, I have discovered. So, yay, I got to test some stuff!

ClarinsFoundation Teint Haute Tenue (=Everlasting Foundation)

This comes with SPF 15. The coverage is on the strong side, between medium and full I would say. The finish is mattifying, but still sort of dewy, if that makes any sense. It lasted through the whole work day, only rubbed off on the sides of my nose. It emphasized the dry skin parts a lot. I’d say it is best for normal to oily skin.

Giorgio ArmaniMaestro Fusion Makeup

Also SPF 15. This feels so amazing upon application, unlike anything else I used so far. The color selection is also pretty great. The coverage is light, it covers my pores, but not any blemishes. It offers less coverage than my Dior BB Creme. The finish is completely matte, emphasized dry skin. This is best for people with oily skin who don’t want much coverage, imo.

YSLLe Teint Touche Eclat Foundation

Do you know this situation, where you applied make up in the morning, then spend the day kicking around, not looking at yourself in the mirror, and then maybe you go out in the evening and you get home sometime past midnight and you see yourself in the mirror and think: “OMG D:” or is it just me?

So, when I applied this foundation and did what I described above and then looked at myself in the mirror in the middle of the night I went: “OMG :D”! I now understand why many celebs swear by this. Somehow this foundation looks better after several hours of wearing than it does when you apply it. I don’t know how, but I swear it happened to me.

Has SPF 19, light coverage (like the Maestro above), dewy finish. It’s not mattifying, does not emphasize dry skin. I really want a full size of this, but since the coverage is less than what my Dior BB Creme offers, I refrained. I might buy it when the BB Creme runs out. Best for dry skin. Does not emphasize fine lines.

At this point in my research I had swatched almost every high end foundation. Everything by Chanel was out for being too dark, except for the new Les Beiges Fluid, which doesn’t really have any coverage, I think it’s more of a primer. Everything by Clinique is pink or orange, Shiseido had some good stuff, but again not enough coverage. I didn’t think it was that hard to find something with medium coverage that is not drying.

So I purchased the MaybellineFit Me Liquid Foundation on a whim.

It comes with SPF 18 and has a good range of colors. The lightest, 105, is only a little too dark for me. Sadly, the coverage is light and the worst thing about it is that two hours in, my nose turns shiny and no touch ups on earth help. And as you probably noticed reading this post, my skin is mostly dry. I even wore mattifying primer. I don’t know what’s up with that.

Finally I found my new holy grail foundation, completely on accident:

I let the MAC Makeup Artist do my face and she looked at my skin and said “You’re more on the dry side, hm?” and then she pulled out a compact foundation and I was like “but aren’t these drying?” and she explained to me that all the MAC liquid foundations are oil-free and it’s the compacts that are made for dry skin. Well this explains why the liquids never worked out for me.

MACMineralize Foundation Compact

SPF 15, medium coverage, not drying, does not emphasize dry skin. Can emphasize fine lines, when applied too much. Thin layers are the key. Lasts very well, needs to be taken off carefully or it will clog pores.

And while I’m at it, the foundations I already owned:

CliniqueAnti Blemish Solutions liquid makeup

Too dark and too orange, but still the best emergency acne makeup: Strong coverage, absolutely mattifying. When I really want to make sure my nose does not get shiny I apply this without any primer. Lasts all day. Dries the skin something horrible, can not be worn two days in sequence. Emphasizes dry skin, aggravates dry skin, makes it look redder. Can look very cakey. What I do is, I use this on my nose and chin when I get really bad break outs and do the rest of the face with something else.

Does not list SPF, but includes Titanium Dioxide and Iron Oxides, so I believe it does offer some sort of sun protection.

DiorskinForever Fluid:

SPF 25. The name is program, this is another one that needs to be cleaned off well at the end of the day. Medium Coverage. Sometimes my nose gets really shiny and sometimes not. Might be connected to primer/powder. I wouldn’t call this either matte or dewy. This would in fact be my go-to foundation if the lightest color wasn’t too dark for me. This thing oxidises into an orange tint. I checked it on photos and it’s not noticable there, but I notice it in the mirror. 😦 I use this in summer when my skin is darker (does not usually happen) or together with the Clinique Anti Blemish.

DiorskinForever Compact:

Also SPF 25. This is what I keep at work for touch ups. The color, even though it is the same number as in the fluid (010) is absolutely perfect for me. It’s light enough and it doesn’t change. It’s mattifying and gives good coverage, on the strong side of medium I’d say. But I think it’s too dry to use it as a foundation in the morning as opposed to only doing touch ups with it.

I also have a mini size of Benefit’s Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow, but it’s really too dark for me, so I didn’t even test it properly. I also tried Lancome’s Teint Miracle, but it has way too little coverage.

And that’s it! If you made it here, you deserve a cookie. Thank you for reading and sorry for the lack of pics, but I used up the samples completely.

Rules say you need to show something red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet and in addition something pink and something multi-colored. I think I have mentioned before that I don’t consider indigo a seperate color from blue and also I found that I own exactly nothing indigo-colored so I have made do with something teal and something blue.

Here are my picks:

Make-up clutter!

Red: Jelly Pong PongLip Blush, one of the few true reds I have. Most of my red lippies lean towards pink.

Here’s a close up, since it vanishes a little in the above pic:

Orange: MAC Casual Color Lip & Cheek color in Out For Fun. These pots of cream blushes were Limited Edition. They are among my favorite cream formulas and I am sad the regular cream blushes are a lot less creamy. This one is a summery color for me, but I have recently revived it for the orange lips trend.

Yellow: I have no true yellow, so you have to make do with gold. This is my MaybellineColor Tattoo in 05 Eternal Gold. I am a huge fan Maybelline, of course I own Color Tattoos. 🙂 I don’t usually talk about them in this blog, because they are being covered by so many others already. I think they have amazing color payoff, are reasonably long-lasting, but are harder to blend than some high end cream shadows. My taupe one was sort of dried up from the beginning, and never worked well, but the gold one is good and still like new two years later.

Green: ManhattanMagic Duo Eyeshadow in Green Intense: Great Quality Powder Eyeshadow. I love green and have lots of green shadow, yet it was easy to pick this one. It’s a perfect duo, I don’t need anything else for a complete look.

Teal & Blue: Sticking these together, since I chose the same item in different colors: These are s-hequick eye stylers, liquid eyeliners with a thin felt tip applicator. Colors are 002 blue and 003 petrol. I bought every available color of these when I went through my liquid liner phase. They are easy to apply, and last pretty well. Sometimes I end up with an additional line on top of my lid, though.

Violet: My highly beloved Baume in Love by Lancome. Is sheer in color, but is a great pick me up on dull lips plus very moisturizing. I think the color name was “A la folie, cherry”?

And the extras:

Pink: ClarinsEclat Minute Blush in Vitamin Pink: This is a liquid blush with lots of sparkle. A fav of mine for rainy, dull days. I think you can see in the pic that I’ve already used up half of the bottle. How often does it happen you actually use up blush?

Multicolored: Sadly the camera didn’t pick it up properly next to the more colorful items, but this is my GivenchyLe Prisme Visage Bucolique, the face powder from Givenchy’s Bucolic Blossoms Collection. This was a spring collection two (?) years ago that I went seriously crazy about. I bought everything except for the lipstick. The face powder has yellow, red, lilac and green parts, sprinkled all over. It’s a finishing powder like Guerlain Meteorites and it’s so pretty. It is seriously the only thing in my make up stash that I consider too pretty to use. Although I have used it a few times…

This was my rainbow tag! I tag everyone to do it who wishes to do it! I would love to see your picks.

During this I learned that I don’t have that many make up items in primary colors. While I have dozens of corals and pinks and many greens, there is a severe lack of blues and yellows. Most of my makeup falls into the brown/bronze category. 🙂

… I just realized I didn’t even bother looking at my nail polish! Whoops. In case I get tagged again, it’s going to be about nail polish.

As expected I did not have any empties in october. Here are my empties of the month november:

The Body ShopAbsinthe Hand Butter: This has been a repurchase. I like that the scent is light, barely noticable. It’s good for the warmer days, but in winter I need something stronger. (100 ml)

ClarinsAge-Control Hand Lotion with SPF 15: Another great product, sadly pretty expensive for only 75 ml. The scent is also barely noticable, a huge plus imho. However it left the hand slightly sticky – I almost didn’t notice it, but the black writing on the cap of my chapstick suddenly was on my fingers instead of where it belonged…

Cliniquehigh impact mascara: admittely this is a case of almost used up, but I think it’s going to be a matter of days, so. (Finally I am making way with my decorative products.) The high impact mascara has a huge brush that makes it hard to get to the roots of the lashes without also making a huge mess. Apart from that, it was a pretty good mascara, adding volume and length. This has been a repurchase but I probably won’t buy it again. Not after I met Benefit’s They’re real.

BaleapH neutral Waschlotion: This is a soap-free cleanser which can be used for pretty much all over, face, body, hands. It is very gentle. I would have preferred the packaging to be see through – when I ran out it was a surprise.

And for last: biothermAquasource deep serum

This has been very good to my pores, they were not clogged and smaller. The perfect serum would be a combination of this and Blue Therapy. Other than the pores I didn’t notice much change while using deep serum. I didn’t need any additional moisturizer though, which is useful.

For the first time ever I decided to get one of these boxes from Douglas. They are not a subscription in Austria, so it’s a one-time puchase. It was delivered as it should be right the next day, except I had it shipped to my mum on accident so I only got it today.

Bird view into the box.

This LancomeAdvanced Genifique serum came not as a part of the box, but as one of the two freebies. The other one was a perfume sample.

This ClarinsBe-long Mascara was part of the box. My mum immediately called dibs on it, so I can’t give a review of it. It was a sample size of 3 ml (full size is 7 ml).

I’m sorry I have no good individual pics to show; I had no time (my mum kept on grabbing stuff). hellotanh did a great post on the Douglas box of beauty here.

The whole deal included:

RodialGlam Balm Lip Tube with SPF 15 (full size, 7 ml)

Anny6 in 1 Nail Polish (mini size, 6 ml)

Kanebo SensaiPrime Solution (mini size, 10 ml)

ClarinsBe-long Mascara (mini size, 3 ml)

Absolute DouglasLipgloss (full size, 8 ml)

IsadoraSingle Eye Shadow in Nr 11 Almond (one of a trio set; it is super tiny cute but it doesn’t seem like the full sets are bigger)

All this plus the freebies for the cost of 10 € (and no shipping costs!) is great value. I’m tickled silly about the two serums (the Kanebo one seems to be a serum as well as the Lancome Genifique), and Kanebo is such a good brand (but way too expensive). I like the mix of products, a little make up, a little skin care, plus nail polish (and no hair products, thankfully). I’m not a big fan of lip glosses so I’d have prefrerred the full size to be something else, but that’s a minor complaint. I’m glad I threw myself into the fight.

No, I don’t have another beauty box subscription. Instead I decided to put my most needed items and a few others into my prettiest Glossybox box to have them handy. I decided to combine this with the concept of “stash-shopping”, so that I’ll have a full box of make up items and will not use any other for a t least a whole week. Stash-shopping means that instead of buying more items, you go through what you already own and pick items from there. I’ll have yet to perfect my stash shopping skills. Anyway, here’s my box of the last week:

What do we have here?

Emite eyelash curler. Possibly the product from Glossybox I was the most skeptical about which turned out to be the most useful.

You can see I use the Catrice foundation a lot. Sadly, it has already been discontinued so I spare you the review. I combine it with the MAC Prep&Prime because the foundation doesn’t have any SPF. I think it makes the foundation last a little longer too, but it’s not omg the best primer ever. It’s in the box because I’ve had it for a while and I’m trying to use it up. It has a tendency to really cling to the skin so washing it off is a pain.

I have tried to use the same product both under my eyes and on blemishes but that never works. I’m happier with one for under eyes and one for blemishes. I like the Clinique one very much, the coverage is not full but it’s still a huge difference to me without under eye concealer. You can see the Studio Finish concealer gets a lot of use – I think it’s the best concealer I’ve tried. The pictured color is NC 20. In the darkest days of winter I switch to NC 15, but that one sees less use than this one. I like them better than benefit‘s boi-ing (I have boi-ing in 01 and 02, one is too pale, the other too pink). The quality is comparable but I still like MAC’s better.

Another item in daily use: alverde transparent eye brow gel. I used to pluck my brows and sometimes dye them, but I stopped both during 2013. Since my brows are thick and untamed now a little brushing and gel helps.

Lancome‘s eclat miracle is a subtle highlighter that I keep on forgetting to use. I don’t use highlighter regularly but I want to use this more. That’s why it’s in the box.

Two items I’ve owned for years and that don’t see much use: Clinique high impact mascara is my oldest mascara. It’s still good, but I’m trying to use it up before it goes bad. Except, I haven’t used any mascara in about two months, so the plan is not going so well. (First I barely wore eye make up, then I went no make up and then I dyed my blonde eyelashes black which makes such a huge difference that I don’t feel like I need mascara – note to self: never buy mascara again)

MAC prep&prime eye is what I use underneath powder eye shadows unless I use cream shadow instead. I also don’t use powder shadows that much, so this item didn’t get much love lately. I dug it out to use underneath my new Chanel shadows, works very well.

These on the other hand are in the box because they are new: The jelly pong pong liner from the last Glossybox (great for a very easy smokey eye, use nothing but this and your finger); Catrice cream eyeshadow in Copper&Gabbana (was on sale, obviously); and last Chanel cream stick shadow in Pink Lagoon which I had to grab before it wasn’t available anymore. So far I think Chanel does the best cream sticks. The last two items go very well with the shadows in my Oasis palette, which I showed here.

And last, MAC Casual Color for lip& cheek in Relaxation is in the box because it is my current favorite blush. It was a limited edition, a little creamier than normal MAC creme blushes and therefore super easy to apply.

The other two items were my first attempt at stash shopping, mostly picked because I had not seen them in a while, not because they go particularly well with the rest (need to put more thought in next time). Clarins Eclat Minute blush in Brown Fizz as a bronzer and Clarins Rouge Hydra Nude with SPF 6 in 03. If this color had a name then I don’t know it, sorry. I’ve had this lipstick for a long time and it’s quite fascinating: it smells strongly of sweets, like chocolate with nougat. That makes it a little annoying to wear because I keep on trying to lick it off.

The other items you saw in the box are my newest Chanel acquisitions so I won’t show them again.

I decided to call these my spring makeup favorites, they are products I have been grabbing for a lot in the past weeks.

Sorry for the drab lighting, it’s so dull and rainy outside. These are my spring favorites, with the exception of an eye shadow quad that didn’t fit into it anymore and will get its own picture underneath. Top: Bobbi BrownLong-Wear Cream Shadow in Cool Lilac, underneath from left to right: ClarinsEclat Minute Blush in Brown Fizz, LancomeEclat Miracle, GivenchyLe Rose Relevateur de Liv in LIVely Pink, ChanelRouge Allure in Precieuse, ChanelJoues Contraste in Frivole.

Opened: I am so fascinated by Givenchy‘s lipstick (it’s the pink one here, LIVely Pink – that is not a typo on my part, it’s written like that for those who didn’t get the hint that it’s from a collection for actress Liv Tyler). It does not go on very pink, it’s almost colorless, but it makes your natural lip color pop like whoa! I’m sad it’s my only Rose Revelateur de Liv, there were some pretty awesome lipsticks in the lineup. I don’t even know when it came out, sometime last year or 2011?

Next to it, the Chanel Rouge Allure in Précieuse looks almost tan, but it’s a pale nude color. A perfect nude to me, it may be too pale for others. It’s more lively than my Rouge Coco in Superstition, though, more orange than that one and with multicolored shimmer. This and the Chanel blush are the only items here that are actually from Spring 2013 collections.

Above, please excuse how messy it looks and that I cut off the applicator in this pic, is Clarins Eclat Minute blush in Brown Fizz. It it from Clarins Spring 2012 collection. Regular Readers know I was all over this collection, I also own the other two liquid blushes that came in it. In winter I mostly wore Vitamin Pink or Coral Tonic, but now I like to pretend I’ve been a little sunkissed and wear Brown Fizz instead. The liquid blush (well with this color it’s more a liquid bronzer really) can be blended with fingers very well, and can be applied very light, so it does not look off on pale skin. It is very sparkly though so I wouldn’t wear it in direct sunlight. It’s my rainy day savior, when I want to pretend that it has been sunny before.

Next to it is Lancome‘s Eclat Miracle. This is a liquid highlighter, a very subtle one though. While I do use it all year, I had somehow forgotten about it and only recently started using it again, which is why it’s on this list. This is in the permanent range.

Bobbi Brown Long Wear Cream Shadow in Cool Lilac: I am such a fan of the long wear cream shadows, and I am planning to make a swatch post of those I own. This color is a wake me up sort of color, a pale lilac with soft purple shimmer. Very spring blossom. It’s in the permanent range.

Chanel‘s Joues Contraste in Frivole, from the Spring 2013 Collection. I find this to be the perfect coral powder blush, all other coral powders can go home. I need no other. It can be applied lightly or stronger. The only cons in this product are the smell and the brush. Luckily the brush can easily be ignored, the scent not so much. Roses, blahrg. 😦

Last, the quad I couldn’t work into the first picture: Givenchy Le Prisme Yeux – Quatuor in Bucolic Blossoms. This was Givenchy’s 2012 Spring Collection and I went a little crazy with it; I also bought the face powder and the powder blush. The eye shadows I used the most though.

You can see I use some colors more than others, but I do like all of them, they are just so spring-y, and the brown is so very universal, I use it in most looks and also on my brows.

So these are the products I used lately, excluded those that I use all year round anyway. My skin care routine and such does not really change in spring so it’s a makeup only post. No swatches because in the current bad light the colors came out wrong, sorry.

EucerinDermatoClean: another micell thing. I need to start buying bigger sizes of cleansers, really. I enjoyed using this one a lot; I wish they had a bigger size than 200ml.

list of ingredients; this product comes unscented, yay!

petritschhair gold hair shine treatment: I’m on a mission to use up testers and such. This thing is not supposed to be a conditioner but you use it like one (put on wet hair, rinse) and it’s supposed to make your hair shiny. Honestly I couldn’t see any difference in shininess afterwards. Since it’s not meant to be a conditioner, the conditioning properties are there, but not as good. You’re meant to use both a conditioner and this but I really don’t see the point.

Rexonaaloe vera fresh dry deo stick: I used up two of these pretty much at the same time; one at home and one in my gym bag. I’ve already replaced them with the same brand but different scent. You know those questions where people get asked what they would take to an abandoned island and they list stuff like books, ipods, or mascara? forget all that, I’ll take rexona. I’m willing to live without pretty much every luxury but deodorant. I prefer stick to roll ons or sprays because I don’t want to feel wetness and I can throw them in a bag and don’t have to worry about leakage. Once I had a stick melt inside the car when it was really hot, but even then there was no leaking, the product stayed contained by the cap. I really like Rexona sticks, okay?

Clarinscreme desalterante/hydra quench cream: I found this one underwhelming. Don’t get me wrong, it is a great cream, especially when it’s still cold outside, but the smell and texture reminded me of normal Nivea face cream. It’s good but is it worth the price Clarins asks for a full size? I don’t think so. Maybe it is a super miracle cream and I didn’t discover its greatness yet, but if so, the sample was too small.

BiothermBlue Therapy serum: This one on the other hand, omfg. It promises to repair visible signs of aging. That’s quite a lot to promise. I used it morning and evenings for over a month (about six weeks all in all, I had a second smaller sample as well), at first with additional face cream but then I noticed that was not necessary as it gave enough moisture and I stopped using anything else.

After three days (=six applications) my raised, angry red acne scars scabbed over. I’ve had these for about half a year or longer. The next day the scab fell off and the scars were visibly smaller and less discolored. Three days! After five days I found it behaved like you often hear about really good acne products. You know when you start using this acne cream to lessen your acne, but then break out all over instead? And it’s supposed to be good because it pulls out the acne from deeper inside the skin? and you go, well great but I look like a pizza now? Well, this serum does that, too. It contains salicylic acid btw. After day seven the pimples healed off. The rest of the month I had no such break out anymore, and pimples were smaller and healed more nicely. So I want to say this is a really good serum, but do not start using it a week before your wedding, you’d be one unhappy bride. 😉

So, does it do what it promises? I’m not sure if it reduces age related problems, I don’t have this many visible wrinkles yet and I can’t say if it would help with pigmentation problems. But I very much recommend it for acne. I’m a big fan of using anti-aging products for acne instead of acne products. I feel like acne products never moisturize enough and this perpetuates the problem, since the skin produces more of its own sebum which is what bacteria eat. Also some of the stronger acne products, like La Roche Posay Effaclar Duo make me red and swollen and pop the outer skin layers right off. It’s just too strong.

The absolutely only minor downside of blue therapy serum as far as I saw it was that while it got the acne out and evened the scars out some, my pores seemed a little more clogged. By that I mean I felt I had more visible blackheads. I don’t think it makes sense since the product exfoliates, but it has been my observation. I might purchase a full size, but unlike the tester I wouldn’t use it every day.